UNICEF: Young leave Bosnia due to loss of patience

Geeta Narayan -- the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Representative in Bosnia Herzegovina -- said that young people are leaving Bosnia because they lost patience.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency in an interview, Narayan said that youth of Bosnia has lost the patience due to lack of hearing and investment in them.

Explaining the activities of UNICEF in Bosnia, Narayan said that they are dealing with the children in the early years of their education as well as their social life and growth development.

"UNICEF is dealing with a wide range of issues concerning the rights of the child. We work in the fields of education, child care, social inclusion and health and early growth and development of children," said Narayan.

- OBSTACLES TO ACHIEVING FULL POTENTIAL -
According to her, in Bosnia, as in many other countries of the world, children with disabilities are excluded from education and have many obstacles in order to realize their full potential.

"We have done a lot of events, mini-campaigns and, among other things, we wanted to say that it is best for children with difficulty, as well as for children with disabilities, to be included in a joint educational program because they learn both. This helps all children learn diversity, respect, and mutual support. In September, for example, we organized an event where we recognized individuals who made a special contribution to promoting the social inclusion of children with disabilities," said a UNICEF representative in BiH.

Narayan pointed out that this year is a particularly significant one for UNICEF in Bosnia and its partners were related to refugee and migrant children.

"With the increased number of migrants and refugees in the country, the number of children who found themselves in a particularly vulnerable situation has increased. What was our task, or to respond to our mission and existence, is to provide them with health care, immunization or psychosocial support. We do a lot on this and get involved in a regular school program, because it is the best way for children to return to normality, although they are in a situation that is not normal, but at least in some way they get a feel. Many of them were exposed to various threats, violence, and exploitation risks, so that everything that can be done for these children is indeed one of our important priorities," said Narayan.

- QUICK ANSWER APPLICATION -
According to Narayan, UNICEF is not focused only on one area, but on several of them, with the aim of protecting the rights of children.

"There are many things, such as education, health care, social inclusion, but if we had to isolate one area, then it is a concern for adolescents, children aged ten to 18 years. We recently launched an initiative that we called the U-report. It is a new tool for communicating with young people, which allows them to ask questions only if they have a telephone, and we get an answer right away. In this way we get a direct answer from them about what they think about what is happening today. This way we can have instant answers and thus take into account what young people want to say. The application is completely free and confidential, so far we have about 400 registered users, and we hope in the future that we will have about ten thousand," said Narayan.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was founded in 1946 with the aim of overcoming the obstacles that poverty, violence, illness and discrimination cause in the development of the child.